I am writing an article for the ILA Reporter, and I would like to hear about the experience of others.

At Northern Illinois University Libraries, we have other University offices in our building: tutoring, Writing Center, and others–even our Caribou Coffee. So, we have a lot of people who work in the library, but don’t work for the Library. If I had to say that there were problems with this arrangement, I would say that it is fracturing to our sense of community: we don’t all know each other. This manifests most often when patrons come in and asks at one of our service desks about a person who works at one of these other offices, or about these services, etc. When we don’t know the answer here, we have had patrons react with frustration. It makes us frustrated too.

I wanted to try to make a resource that the staff could use that would tell us who works where. These other offices would have access too, and that’s where it got hard: our Systems folks couldn’t think of a way for all these various entities to have access to this resource, plus there’s still the issue of keeping such a resource current. What I would like to hear about from others is about the kind of relationships or partnerships that your library has within it or elsewhere, and then how your institution keeps everyone current on those relationships/partnerships and the staff involved. What challenges have you noticed?

Applications are open for Elevate Illinois Libraries Leadership Program that will be held on April 27, 2019, at the Illinois State Library. Elevate is a statewide library initiative to recruit and nurture future Illinois library leaders. This year’s program will focus on how to build effective teams. Through case studies and small group discussion, participants will learn how to help teams get off to a great start and build toward success as well as how to diagnose and solve common team problems.

The application deadline is Friday, March 1. Notifications on status of applications will be sent by March 11. If you have questions about your application, please contact Cyndi Robinson at robinson@ila.org or 312-644-1896.

We are seeking contributions for a new book on The SocialFuture of Academic Librariesbuilding on our panel session at ACRL 2017 viewing libraries through the lens of intellectual and social capital.

Our point of departure is the current focus in college and university libraries on engagement, partnerships, community development, and social relations. The social turn in academic librarianship requires new ways of working and new ways of thinking about the resources, services, and capabilities of the library and information workforce. Intellectual capital perspectives and social network theory can help librarians understand the demands of the current environment and develop effective responses for their communities.

The book is co-edited by Tim Schlak, Sheila Corrall, and Paul Bracke, and will be published by Facet Publishing. It will have three parts:

Part 1 will introduce the relevant theoretical, conceptual, and methodological frameworks;

Part 2 will explore the application of intellectual capital and social network theory to libraries as social organizations, and show how they can use the models and tools presented to evaluate and strengthen strategy, collaborations, leadership, and other aspects of library performance;

Part 3 will focus on implications for library policy and practice, professional education, and research.

Parts 1 and 3 will primarily be authored by the editors. The focus of our call for proposals is on Part 2. We are particularly interested in receiving proposals for chapters that discuss and illustrate the practical application of intellectual and social capital theory and concepts, including social network analysis, to issues currently facing academic libraries and librarians. The target length for contributed chapters is around 5,000 words (excluding references).

Potential areas of application include, but are not limited to:

· strategic planning

· space design

· scholarly communication

· information behavior

· learner support

· library instruction

· academic liaison

· partnership formation

· relationship management

· community outreach

· organization development

· user experience

· service assessment.

We invite potential contributors to submit an abstract of 300-500 words, summarizing your proposed chapter, outlining your intended approach and structure, and indicating how it advances thinking and practice in the field. Please provide a working title for your contribution, up to six keywords highlighting the topics/issues to be discussed, and brief author bio (2-3 sentences) along with details of any related prior work.

The deadline for abstract submissions is now Thursday, January 31, 2019. Please send submissions as email attachments (Word or PDF files) by email to Tim Schlak at schlak@rmu.edu.

Prospective authors will receive feedback on their proposals by Monday, February 11, 2019.

Accepted authors must be able to submit complete chapters by Monday, April 29, 2019, to allow time for revisions and editing prior to submission to the publisher in June 2019.

As librarians, providing equitable access to all patrons should be a top priority. The patrons visiting our libraries should reflect the diversity of the communities we live in. Unfortunately, there are many populations that go underserved. How can we broaden our reach to better serve all our community?

Join us on Thursday, February 28 for an Amigos Library Services online conference, “Open Doors: Reaching Underserved Populations”, where we will explore methods and best practices for reaching an important part of your community.

Kicking off our conference is keynote speaker, Dr. Michele Villagran, consultant, presenter, and founder of CulturalCo LLC. Her keynote will explore how cultural intelligence makes a difference in the information profession and asks the question, “are you culturally competent?” Throughout the rest of the day, a variety of peers and experts will present on a diverse range of topics, with each time slot offering three different programming options.

Don’t forget, as a benefit of Amigos Library Services membership, attendance is FREE at all online conferences!

The ACRL Technical Services Interest Group invites you to join us for three presentations on:

Date: Saturday, January 26th 2019
Time: 4:30-5:30 PM
Place/Room: Washington State Convention Center, Room 211
Following the BIBFLOW Roadmap: First Steps toward a Linked Data Environment
Marcia Barrett, Cataloging & Metadata Strategies Librarian
University of California, Santa Cruz
UC Santa Cruz Library recently enhanced bibliographic data with identifiers to facilitate the eventual reuse of MARC data as Linked Data. The project was a result of Associate University Librarian Kerry Scott’s desire to position the library system for a linked data environment. Uniform Resource Identifiers, or URIs, were a topic of great discussion in the library community in 2017. The consensus was that the first step in preparation for Linked Data was moving from “strings” of bibliographic data to “things,” machine-actionable identifiers that uniquely identify things on the Semantic Web. Based on recommendations from the Program for Cooperative Cataloging Task Group on URIs in MARC and the BIBFLOW roadmap report produced by UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz Library added URIs to controlled access points in local MARC records as the first step toward a Linked Data bibliographic environment.
This presentation will include what to consider when adding URIs to MARC data, why this is an important first step, and options for achieving URI enrichment.

Benchmarking Vended Authority Control Practices
Rebecca L. Mugridge, Dean of University Libraries
Nancy Poehlmann, Head of Metadata Services
University at Albany, SUNY
In this presentation the authors will share the results of a study designed to benchmark the use of vendors to support authority control activities in Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries. Such activities include updating authority or bibliographic records, sourcing authority records, participation in cooperative cataloging efforts, and more. The authors designed a survey and sent it to the Heads of Cataloging or Authority Control Librarians of ARL Libraries. The survey investigated whether and how responding libraries used vendors to create and maintain an authority file and process current cataloging records. The survey gathered demographic and other information about the libraries, and the authors identified trends and correlations between these and other factors. Data gathered included information about how current cataloging is managed, how authority files are kept up to date, future plans regarding the use of vendors for authority control functions, and more. The authors will share their findings, note trends in vended authority control processes, and make recommendations for further research.

New Take on Name Authority Control in a Digital Repository
Marina Morgan, Metadata Librarian
Florida Southern College
The focus of the presentation is the analysis of name authority control in the Florida Southern College Digital Repository to determine the extent to which faculty researchers are represented in researcher identifier databases. A purposive sample of 50 faculty authors were compared against five different databases: Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF), Scopus, Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), Virtual International Authority File (VIAF), and International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI). The findings show that while LCNAF and Scopus results are comparable, the difference in the ORCID, VIAF, and ISNI are considerable. Additionally, the results show that the majority of authors are represented in two or three external databases. This has implications for enhancing local authority data by linking to external identifier authority data to augment institutional repository metadata.

(via Gwen Gregory, University of Illinois at Chicago, on behalf of the Reaching Across Illinois Library System)

All RAILS members are invited to attend this update, either at a videoconference location or via streaming. One of the featured reports is on the College of DuPage Library’s use of OERs.
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All RAILS Member Library Staff Encouraged to Attend January 17 Member Update
The Thursday, January 17 RAILS Member Update will be held from 10 a.m.-noon, at a variety of RAILS videoconference locations and via one-way live streaming (RAILS Live). See more information/register<https://railslibraries.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c51285b8d63e23716bce030f&id=8dde38e9ca&e=be063b278e>.

Learn how your library can prepare for the 2020 census to help maximize participation throughout Illinois. Joe Natale, the Illinois State Library’s representative with the Complete Count Commission, will join this part of the discussion. Federal funding for Illinois (including library funding) and our number of congressional seats depend on an accurate census count.

The CARLI Commercial Products Committee is planning a symposium on March 26, 2019 in Champaign focusing on two emerging issues in e-resources: streaming video and usage statistics. The Committee is soliciting volunteers who would be willing to participate in a moderated panel and/or a breakout session addressing the following topics:

Streaming Video – presentations on library licensing, marketing and management of streaming video related to the following or other pertinent issues:

* Deciding which streaming video vendors and products to license.
* Marketing and educating administrators, library staff, faculty, and other stakeholders on how, why, and when to use streaming video.
* Making streaming video resources discoverable.
* Policies and procedures regarding replacing existing media (VHS, DVD, etc.) with streaming media.
* How libraries handle various licensing terms within or across streaming media platforms.
* How libraries do libraries fit streaming video into their budgets (re-allocation of funds from other resources? Which other resources? etc.).

Usage Statistics – presentations and discussion on the harvesting, storage, interpretation, and dissemination of usage statistics related to the following or other pertinent issues:

* Why does your library track usage statistics? What specific reports are required of your library for which you might supply usage statistics?
* How does your library collect usage statistics? What methods, products, or tools do you use?
* How often does your library harvest usage statistics?
* Who in your library is responsible for gathering usage statistics–is it just one person or department, or are multiple staff involved in collecting and compiling usage stats?
* What challenges does your library face in collecting, interpreting, or utilizing the kinds of usage data gathered?

If you have experience in either of these areas and would be interested in participating on a panel and/or presenting, please send a 1-2 paragraph description of your topic idea to Lesley.Wolfgang@hshs.org<mailto:Lesley.Wolfgang@hshs.org> by Monday, January 28th, 2019. The Commercial Products Committee will review proposals and presenters will be notified by Friday, February 15th, 2019.

Registration expands to 2 people per CARLI member library on January 11th.

The CARLI Technical Services Committee and Collection Management Committee invite you to attend “Change is Good: You Go First! Leading Others To and Through Change”. This all-day event on change management will be held at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Student Center East on April 2, 2019.

Morning plenary sessions will include presentations by Kevin O’Connor (a Leadership and Communications Expert who specializes in change) and Kristine Hammerstrand (CARLI Director of User Services) who will talk about the upcoming changes with the I-Share migration to Alma. After lunch (provided by CARLI), the day will continue with topical breakouts on change in technical services, collection management, and public services, giving attendees a chance to focus on working with change in particular areas of specialization.

Registration is available to those from CARLI member libraries and is free.

Registration will be first come and will initially be limited:

December 13 – January 10: registration is limited to 1 person per CARLI member library;
January 11 – February 3: registration is limited to 2 people per CARLI member library;
February 4 – March 1: if space remains, CARLI will open registration to any members on the waitlist.

The American Library Association seeks nominations for the Virginia Boucher/OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award. This award recognizes and honors an individual for outstanding professional achievement, leadership, and contributions to interlibrary loan and document delivery through recent publication of significant professional literature, participation in professional associations, and/or innovative approaches to practice in individual libraries. The award consists of $2,000 plus a citation.

The candidate must have been employed in a library and held some responsibility for his or her institution’s ILL, document delivery, or resource sharing services at the time the contribution(s) being honored was made. Contributions supporting a nomination must have occurred during the last two years prior to the nomination deadline. The candidate’s achievement must be demonstrated in at least one of the following areas:

1. Planning and implementing an innovative or pioneering approach to ILL/document delivery service that is recognized as a model on a regional or national level.

2. Notable publication, such as an article, book, or conference paper, which is deemed significant in the literature of the field, and was published in the two years prior to the candidate’s nomination.

3. A record of sustained, recognized, and exceptional participation in regional, national, or international associations devoted to the promotion of ILL/document delivery in a library environment.

Self-nominations are permitted. Previous nominees who were not selected are welcome to reapply.

1. Nomination letter, describing the ways in which the nominee has made a significant contribution to ILL. Letter should address some or all of the following: publications, leadership, measurable effectiveness of programs, influence on others, and creative and innovative concepts.

2. Resume detailing the candidate’s career, achievements and contribution to the field.

The ILA Reporter is currently seeking submissions for the April 2019, and subsequent, issues (the magazine publishes every other month). We’re primarily interested in articles that explore current issues in librarianship, and have state-wide appeal and representation.

We will consider examples of successful initiatives or programs, but encourage article authors to relate these to the larger Illinois library community: If you did a pilot, was it replicated elsewhere in the state? Consider issues you are facing in your own library community; submissions from a broad range of types of libraries and geographic locations around the state are particularly sought.